High Power 12v Supplies?

Giles1

Giles1

Giles
Joined
Dec 19, 2016
Messages
100
Location
Brisbane
At the Brisbane Mini last weekend (which was really good ), they were discussing Power supplies. The general feeling was, the bigger the better.

I’m currently tossing up the idea of building a new Controller Box, with a K32A-B card. As the K32A-B card can supply 32 Ports, I would be able to also increase my available power. I was thinking about 3 Power Supplies in the new box (one for each side of the K32A-B card, and a third one, just for Power Injection).

What’s the maximum Size you can now get in a 12v Power supply, and does anyone have any recommendations?
 
I would suggest server power supplies if you're not worried about size/noise, you can get some cheap second hand ones with high output power, I have 5 2450W units 12V 200A and they work very well, size wise they won't fit in a standard enclosure.
 
Commercial 'Off-The Shelf', Meanwell's RSP-3000-12 or PSPA-1000-12 stacked 4 deep (4000 Watt); the PSPA supplies are designed for parallel operation. Those are the largest 12 Volt I know of.

Higher wattage DC supplies exist but design becomes more difficult as wattage increases so something has to 'give'. In some combination: efficiency drops, costs escalate, lower voltages aren't manufactured, physical size, or design/build quality. While I would agree that larger is better, I would also state that I think there is a threshold where the benefits of a larger supply decrease or disappear.
 
The HP server power supplies are generally available on ebay... 1200 and 750 watt versions, which several vendors make a distribution card to take the power from them.

I think last year I got two 1200w HP psu's for around $90 delivered.
 
I highly recommend the Meanwell RSP3000-12. I have (6) total, 3 running in parallel as well 3 running independently. As others mentioned there are other cheaper alternatives with server psu's. The large Meanwells arent cheap.. They are pretty small for the power they put out which is why I use them
 
Last edited:
Bigger power supplies certainly help but keep in mind there is only a certain amount of power that can be pushed through your controller board. For example the falcon F16v3 can only handle 30 amps per side. I can’t comment on the Kulp boards. Power injection is certainly a whole nother scenario. Something to keep in mind
 
Load distribution is where the higher wattage supplies really help. Ignoring fusing/cabling and a few other things, if one has a number of props where their amperage requirements equal or exceed the capability of a supply, does one add a supply and divide the props amongst the supplies, divide the prop's load between 2 (or more) supplies, or just use a larger supply?
 
Lots of good recommendations here. Every display is different and controller boxes should suit YOUR needs. In my case I power to props directly rather than off the board. Larger props get there own power supply/s and the rest share power based on their position in the yard. I also advocate for HP sever power supplies for 12v needs.
 
Last edited:
I was looking into high wattage Meanwell supplies myself, but due to the cost of higher (>350W) supplies, was just going to go with more multiple lower wattage units. I didn't even think about using my spare Dell Server's back up hot-swap-able 1100W supplies!! I have a few of those lying around and would be perfect for power distribution! Why didn't I think about server supplies before!! Tks Bpratt!
 
This is where the bigger is better advice falls in heap, this is from the spec sheet for a 2000w meanwell supply, if you don't load it above 30% you drop efficiency.... 10% may not sound like much but it can bite into power consumption from the grid.

This is nothing un-usual for SMPS units across the board, so we get back to right sizing the power supply to the expected load.

efficiency.PNG
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top